Introduction

With the recent rise of high range poke teams in the European LCS many people have begun using poke heavy mid laners such as Varus, Kog'Maw, and Jayce in ranked solo queue, to varying degrees of success. Since the subject of team composition has always interested me, I began looking into certain champions who excel at putting these heavy poke teams into jeopardy. These are a few of the more prime choices for putting those poke monsters of the mid and bot lane in their place.

Jarvan IV - A powerful top lane pick with high damage, surprising mobility, and a decent amount of bulk built into his kit and base values. Jarvan is a masterful champion for splitting a frontline right down the middle and isolating the squishy backline targets. These strengths made him a massive early game threat in the jungle during the spring, but the recent nerfs have caused him to be more preferred in the top lane. A great example of this top lane Jarvan can be seen played by Team Dignitas top laner Youngjin 'Gamsu' Noh. Gamsu put up an amazing performance on Jarvan against Team Liquid in Week 4 of the NA LCS Summer Split. Jarvan's bursty kit allows for him to quickly remove any squishy champion from a fight. This helps quite a bit in games against poke carries due to most champions designed for poke having few escapes to stay away from the mighty Prince of Demacia.

Xin Zhao - The fighter that all fighters want to be. The king of the early jungle pressure. Xin Zhao is my favorite jungler to pick blind in ranked solo queue. Xin Zhao's first three abilities give him an impressive amount of power, but his late game teamfighting can be a bit lackluster. He can easily spread a team apart with his ultimate and dash combo, and he can stick to squishy targets easily. However, his damage and crowd control are very easy to avoid, and most crowd control will shut him down quite easily. His built in bulk from base values is surprisingly low. His high sustain is designed to make up for this, but it does leave him vulnerable if he is unable to sustain himself in a fight. These weaknesses do not cripple him however, against teams that are unable to react to his combos he is a force to be reckoned with.

Nautilus - Titanic doesn't even begin to describe the power of Nautilus. Being a Nautilus main my view might be a bit biased, but no one can deny that Nautilus is a massive crowd control threat. Unlike the high damage Jarvan and the heavy sustain Xin Zhao, Nautilus relies most on his crowd control and innate tankiness to survive and thrive in teamfights. Nautilus has been seen in top, support, and jungle positions in the NA LCS this year, and sported an impressive 60% win rate during the NA LCS 2015 Spring Split. Nautilus has shown to be a highly disruptive teamfighter no matter the position he plays, and to quote LCS shoutcaster Joshua 'Jatt' Leesman, "The good thing about Nautilus top is that you have Nautilus on your team."

Olaf - While most won't think of him as a "Hard" engage champion, Olaf has proven that he is capable of shattering through tanks and putting carries in a tough spot. With the addition of a movement speed buff to his ultimate Olaf's engage has gone from good to phenomenal. What the viking berserker lacks in heavy crowd control, he makes up for in damage and psychological power. The crowd control immunity given by his ultimate makes him extremely frightening to carries and tanks alike. In the NA LCS Summer Playoff quarter-finals Team Solo Mid ran multiple compositions with a focus on a top lane Olaf. These compositions included a support mid lane champion and a utility focused AD carry. By amplifying the Olaf, the team was able to simply come through behind him and clean up the enemy team. However, Olaf is not without his faults. He is not able to easily contribute if he is far enough behind, and not many times will you be able to put together a "Vroom Vroom Olaf" composition in ranked solo queue. Those things aside, the Berserker is an impressively powerful top or jungle pick for countering those annoying crowd control/poke champions.

Morgana - While she is definitely not a "Hard engage champion," I felt as though she needed to be mentioned; since she gives both assistance to an engage team and hindrance to them as well. Her spell immunity allows her to make any engage champion markedly better at their job; due to tanks not doing enough damage to break the shield early to remove the immunity. The shield combined with her amazing single target root and follow up crowd control from her ultimate make her the perfect pair for a Jarvan, Xin Zhao, Nautilus, or Maokai. In her lane she also can apply decent pressure to other low range supports like Alistar, Braum, and Blitzcrank. Her main counterplay comes from throwing your magic damage at her shield or ignore the shielded target all together.

Engage compositions also have their own weaknesses as a whole. Any team that can properly peel and kite can easily beat down an engager before any damage can be done. However, engage compositions are arguably the most fun to play. This list is only a few of the champions that have good engage potential, and I highly recommend giving them all a try.

Good luck, Have fun, and I'll see you on the Rift! ~Alexmana

All images are from the (League of Legends Wiki) and modified by me.

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